Windows 7 Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) is useful tool for IT Professionals to have a boot disk that’ll boot up from a CD instead of the computer’s hard drive. With boot CD, you can boot with a CD and troubleshoot errors. The Windows 7 AIK ISO image can be downloaded here, and documentation here. If you want to experiment with Windows Vista WAIK, and Vista SP1/Windows Server 2008 WAIK.

How do I build a bootable CD? — After you’ve downloaded the ISO image, either burn it to a DVD or mount it as a virtual drive and start the installation on your PC. After the insallation is complete, use the follwoing batch file to create a bootable CD. This batch file assumes the following:

1. you’ve installed WAIK on computer’s C: drive in the default directory.  If you install WAIK in another directory, you’ll need to update the paths in the batch file (noted in blue).
2. you’re installing the 32bit version (denoted as the “x86” parameter in purple);
3. you don’t currently’ve a directory (folder) on the C: drive called “winpe_x86”.  If you need to change the target folder, change the folders in orange.

Note: Open Notepad to copy & paste the following batch file commands:

CD "C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools" CALL copype.cmd x86 c:\winpe_x86copy c:\winpe_x86\winpe.wim c:\winpe_x86\ISO\sources\boot.wim copy "C:\program files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\imagex.exe" C:\winpe_x86\iso\ oscdimg -n -bC:\winpe_x86\etfsboot.com C:\winpe_x86\ISO C:\winpe_x86\winpe_x86.isorem To remove the "Press any key to boot from CD" prompt during boot, rem remove the bootfix.bin file from the \boot folder within your mounted image. pause 

More info: Mike | Download: Windows 7 RC